2024 Election Outlook

Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum invites you to join us on Zoom for a closer look at the 2024 Election, now one year away. Moderated by retired DC journalist and political commentator Mort Kondracke.

Joining Mort on the panel are political strategist and talk radio host John Carlson, director of NBC election unit John Lapinski, Washington’s 10th Congressional District representative Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland, political consultant Sandeep Kaushik and talk show host Jason Rantz.

Both likely presidential candidates face challenges this election; president Joe Biden is widely deemed too old, his poll numbers are chronically low, he is under investigation by Republicans over Hunter Biden's business dealings and faces political threats from third-party candidates. 

Donald Trump is viewed as a threat to democracy, he is facing multiple criminal charges and unfavorable ratings and low poll numbers on issues like abortion, gun violence, climate change, and health care.

About the panel:

John Carlson is a veteran news commentator, and has hosted “The Commute with Carlson” on 570 KVI radio since the early 1990’s.  He was a co-founder and former President of the Washington Policy Center, one of the northwest’s most respected policy research centers, and has also led three landmark initiative campaigns in Washington, including America’s first “Three Strikes, You’re Out” law in 1993.  He was listed in Columns magazine as one of the UW’s most influential graduates of the 20th century.  He received a B.A. in political science with distinction from the University of Washington in 1981.

A partner at Sound View Strategies (SVS), Sandeep Kaushik is a political and public affairs consultant in Seattle. In addition to his extensive public relations, political communications and strategic advisory work for elected officials and civic leaders, governments and non-profits, he has worked on multiple political campaigns in the Northwest, including numerous issue and ballot measure campaigns.

John Lapinski, Ph.D., is the Robert A. Fox Professor of Political Science, Faculty Director of the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program and the Director of the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies. He also serves as the Faculty Director for the Executive Masters of Public Administration program within the Fels Institute of Government and as the Director of the Elections Unit at NBC News. In his role for NBC News, Lapinski is responsible for projecting races for the network and produces election-related stories through exit polls for NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, and all of NBC’s digital properties. Dr. Lapinski earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 2000, and previously was an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. He came to Penn in 2006. His primary area of research is concerned with understanding national elections as well as lawmaking in Congress through empirical analysis. He is the author of The Substance of Representation (Princeton University Press, 2013) and co-author (with David A. Bateman and Ira Katznelson) of Southern Nation (Princeton University Press, 2018).

Jason Rantz is Seattle's fresh, contemporary conservative voice. Young and urban, passionate and bold, Rantz is outnumbered by the Progressive chorus, yet refuses to ignore the conservative principles at the core of America's greatness. Prolific on-air and online, Rantz knows he's outnumbered in Seattle, but he's never shy to be outspoken about it.

Marilyn Strickland represents Washington’s 10th Congressional District, which covers parts of Pierce and Thurston Counties. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Strickland is the first African-American to represent Washington State at the federal level, and one of the first Korean-American women elected to Congress in its 230-year history. Prior to Strickland’s election to Congress, she served as Mayor of Tacoma. Strickland serves as a Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in addition to the House Armed Services Committee. She is also a Member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), the Bipartisan Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Caucus, Democratic Women's Caucus, and the New Democrat Coalition.